“’So saying the fish vanished instantly.  And Vaivaswata Manu himself became desirous of creating the world.  In this work of creation illusion overtook him and he, therefore, practised great asceticism.  And endowed with ascetic merit, Manu, O ornament of Bharata’s race, again set about his work of creating all beings in proper and exact order.  This story which I have narrated to thee and the hearing of which destroyeth all sin, is celebrated as the Legend of the Fish.  And the man who listeneth every day to this primeval history of Manu, attaineth happiness and all other objects of desire and goeth to heaven.’”

SECTION CLXXXVII

“Then the virtuous king Yudhishthira in all humility again enquired of the illustrious Markandeya, saying, ’O great Muni, thou hast seen many thousands of ages pass away.  In this world there is none so longlived as thou!  O best of those that have attained the knowledge of Supreme Spirit, there is none equal to thee in years except the great-minded Brahma living in the most exalted place.  Thou, O Brahmana, worshippest Brahma at the time of the great dissolution of the universe, when this world is without sky and without the gods and Danavas.  And when that cataclysm ceaseth and the Grandsire awaketh, thou alone, O regenerate Rishi, beholdest Brahma duly re-create the four orders of beings after having filled the cardinal points with air and consigned the waters to their proper place.  Thou, O great Brahmana, hast worshipped in his presence the great Lord and Grandsire of all creatures with soul rapt in meditation and entirely swallowed up in Him!  And, O Brahmana, thou hast many a time witnessed with thy eyes, the primeval acts of creation, and, plunged in severe ascetic austerities, thou hast also surpassed the Prajapatis themselves!  Thou art esteemed as one who is nearest to Narayana, in the next world.  Many a time in days of yore hast thou beheld the Supreme Creator of the universe with eyes of spiritual abstraction and renunciation, having first opened thy pure and lotus-like heart—­the only place where the multiform Vishnu of universal knowledge may be seen!  It is for this, O learned Rishi, by the grace of God neither all-destroying Death, nor dotage that causeth the decay of the body, hath any power over thee!  When neither the sun, nor the moon, nor fire, nor earth, nor air, nor sky remains, when all the world being destroyed looketh like one vast ocean, when the Gods and Asuras and the great Uragas are annihilated, and when the great-minded Brahma, the Lord of all creatures, taking his seat on a lotus flower, sleepeth there, then thou alone remainest to worship him!  And, O best of Brahman as thou hast seen all this that occurred before, with thy own eyes.  And thou alone hast witnessed many things by the senses, and never in all the worlds hath there been any thing unknown to thee!  Therefore do I long to hear any discourse explaining the causes of things!’